2020 Visions are the politician’s strategic equivalent of what Green ICT marketing is for technology vendors at the moment. They are everywhere. The trouble for the intended audience is trying to find the differences between visions and hallucinations, or even policy and strategy. But who can blame the politicians? As a concept, “tomorrow” is a great theme to use when setting agendas. It is most often an exciting prospect. But as well as it being an exciting prospect it can also conjure frightening ghosts of Christmas future as Ebenezer Scrooge first discovered in 1843 when Dicken’s published A Christmas Carol.

So with the Queensland Premier unveiling her Toward Q2 vision for Queensland I first re-read the editorial I wrote back in April comparing Prime Minister Rudd’s 2020 Vision to the Malaysian Prime Minister’s 2020 Vision of 1991. A quick synopsis went something like “immediate unification of non-integrated and competing national strategies and bodies is required should the Rudd government have any hope of handing down a meaningful 2020 Strategic Framework by the end of 2008.”

Back then I found the “tomorrowness” of the Rudd plan wanting. And recalling Dicken's, I love the description of the ghost of Christmas Future on Wikipedia as an analogy for fluffy vision statements: “…it appeared to Scrooge as a figure entirely muffled in a black hooded robe, except for a single gaunt hand with which it pointed.” The future is that way!

Given the development approach of the Bligh strategy is similar in virtually every respect to Rudd’s strategic framework (i.e. publish key themes, then invite community consultation, then develop and enact policies at a later undisclosed date), I approached the 44 page document with trepidation.

My biggest bug bear with the Rudd approach was its blatantly unrealistic and unachievable goals. For one, Australia will never reach the giddy heights of GDP set down by Strategy 2020. Comparatively, I wasn’t far into the Bligh document before I reached a position of “achievable but far from complete".

Queensland’s Five Toward Q2 Ambitions

Strong Economy

• Queensland as Australia’s strongest economy
• 50% proportional increase in QLD businesses undertaking innovation

Green Environment

• 33% reduction of each Queensland citizen's carbon footprint
• 50% more land for  conservation and public recreation

Healthy Queenslanders

• 33% cut in obesity, smoking, heavy drinking and sun exposure
• Shortest public hospital waiting times in Australia

Smart Education

• Access for all children to early childhood education
• 75% Queensland to hold a trade, training or tertiary qualifications

Fair Communities

• 50% proportional decrease in children living in non-working parent houses
• 50% proportional increase in Queensland community volunteers

Underpinned By 

• Smart State Strategy 2008-2012 and other undisclosed strategies

With specific regards to a Strong Economy, the challenge is really for Queensland to maintain its current position and survive the end of the golden mining boom. The Bligh government believes this is achievable through “innovation”. In fact the Government seems too heavily invested in innovation and R&D without consideration for what it actually means. The thought of 54% of Queensland companies being innovators in 2020 is simply a mind-boggling statistic to me particularly as I consider the pile of submissions as a judge for the Business Innovation Category of the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s 2008 Business Awards. Japan isn't an innovative nation because 54% of its companies innovate. Nor is California an innovative state because a saturation of companies in Silicon Valley innovate. They are both innovative because their people and businesses are incredible adopters of innovations.

What will be of particular interest to Queensland companies is the Government’s statement about connecting early-stage knowledge businesses with the finance they need to grow. In the last 12-months Longhaus have researched and written a few reports to say that the VC and early stage capital market in Australia, let alone Queensland, is non-existent. 

Positives for Queensland industry:

• Ambitious and articulated targets;
• Carefully worded public sector chain of accountability;
• Potential for full transparency through FOI laws. 

Negatives for the ICT industry:

• Non-integration of other strategies;
• Potential multiple government changes in the next 12 years;
• Over emphasis but poor focus on innovation (in that it is un-defined and unmeasured);
• Only one reference to Smart State Strategy and one other to ICT (that's 0.1% ICT references in the entire document);
• At best a tenuous link to ICT in Green Environment;
• No link to ICT in Healthy Queenslanders;

Overall Q2 is a good marketing brochure for Queensland but I know that if it was Longhaus’ strategic plan and I put it down in front of the other directors (or even potential investors) that they would send me straight back my office. Q2 tells Queensland where it is today, it tells Queensland where it wants to be, but it doesn’t tell Queensland how to get there. That, the government infers is up to the people.

Currently the Government doesn't even equip its own staff with the basic innovative tools of business so, as a bona fide Queenslander, and as head of an innovative Queensland business, here is my wish list to boost the potential for achieving the ambitions for a strong economy (where the government has put ICT):

• Ubiquitous internet access for all Queensland public servants so that innovative businesses can do business with them in the same way we do it with other innovative businesses;
• Relaxed firewall policies to allow access to new technologies (Flash etc);
• The adoption of software-as-a-service and other on-demand business models;
• Significant re-apportioning of government spending to include accredited SME businesses with 20-199 employees; and
• Encourage the majority of public entities and private companies to be adopters of innovation, not creators of it.